Murder of a Small-Town Honey

now, but did you remember she went out with him a few times in high school?'

May smiled indulgently. 'I couldn't keep track of all the girls Vince dated. He was so popular.'

Skye wondered if her mother was reminding her that she had not been very sought after in high school. Talking with her mother always required being on the alert for am­bushes.

She ignored that unwelcome thought. 'Anyway, Vince dated her right before he got involved with Honey Adair. And Abby was really ticked off at Honey for stealing Vince.'

'This all happened so long ago. She can't still be upset about it.'

'Think of it this way. She's dating Vince again, every­thing is going really well, and suddenly she finds out that Honey is coming back to town. I'd say all the old resent­ment would resurface.'

'How would she know that Honey was Mrs. Gumtree?' May took a few more fries from Skye's pile.

'I haven't worked out that part yet.' Skye shrugged. 'But she could have recognized her from her picture on those posters that were all over town.'

May shook her head. 'Abby is such a sweet girl. She couldn't do something like that.'

'Right.' Skye opened another ketchup packet. 'And there were no drugs in Scumble River when I was in high school. At least that's what you always told me when I complained about the pushers in class.'

'Did you find out anything else?'

'Oh, my, yes. Did you know that Chief Boyd's wife, Darleen, dated Mike Young in high school, while he was so involved in drugs? Honey broke up that relationship, too.'

'No, I didn't know any of that. Well, that might explain his wanting to pin this murder on Vince without much in­vestigating. He probably doesn't want anything about his wife's past to come out.' May shook some salt on her sand­wich.

'I would imagine not, but I just can't picture Chief Boyd with Darleen. She's the special ed teacher at the junior high, and there's something about her that bothers me.'

'Like what?'

'Let me think. To begin with, she's emaciated, not just fashionably thin but skeletal. Also, her eyes bulge out. I keep trying to remember what medical condition causes that. But mostly it's her extremely submissive behavior around the principal that disturbs me.' Taking a sip of her Diet Coke, she tried to put the pieces together.

May finished her meal and started to clean up the debris, putting everything back on the tray. 'Everyone doesn't have to be as bossy as you are.'

'Thanks a lot, Mom.'

May got up and dumped the trash in the garbage. 'You've found out a lot already.'

'That's not all.' Skye followed May to the door. 'Abby said that Honey was very friendly with her Softball coach back then. And you'll never guess who that was.' She paused for effect. 'It was Lloyd Stark, the junior high principal.'

'Do you really think someone like him would get in­volved with a student?'

'Remember, this was sixteen years ago. He may have changed considerably since then. Nevertheless, I'm going to talk to him too.'

They walked toward their cars, parked side by side. May opened her door, then cautioned, 'Be careful. If one of these people did kill Honey, they may already think you saw something, and by asking questions you could be stir­ring up a hornet's nest.'

Skye hugged her mother and kissed her on the cheek. 'When you asked me to help Vince, what did you think would happen?'

'I guess I didn't think, but I don't want to put one of my kids in danger to save the other.'

'Sure, Mom, I'll watch it.'

Skye was scheduled to spend the rest of the day at Scumble River Junior High. As soon as she arrived, she asked to speak to Lloyd but was told by Ursula, the school secretary, that he was unavailable.

Next, she went to the special ed classroom. There she found Darleen, along with eleven students, who were studying for a math quiz.

Skye whispered to Darleen from the doorway, 'Mind if I watch?'

Darleen shook her head, but she kept glancing uneasily at Skye as she taught.

Making her way to the back of the room, Skye sat in a yellow plastic folding chair. From reading their files she knew the kids had a mixed bag of disabilities, with the ma­jority having either learning or behavior problems. They all had study sheets, and most had written in their solutions. Darleen was going over those answers.

Skye was visiting the classrooms in an attempt to match faces to the names on file folders, allow the teachers and students to become accustomed to her, and get a feel for the different teaching styles.

The bell rang at two-fifteen and the students piled out of the room. Gym was last period, and they had a lot of bo.t-tled-up energy to expend.

Turning to Skye, Darleen gestured to the sheaf of papers she was holding. 'This is my planning period, so there won't be any more students today.'

Skye nodded. She recognized a dismissal when she heard one, but she persisted. 'Are you going to the teach­ers' lounge?'

Darleen gave Skye a deer-in-the-headlights look. 'Yes, I thought I'd get a soda while I grade these papers.'

Skye ignored Darleen's attempt to make it perfectly clear that she didn't want company. 'Great. Mind if I join you? Maybe we can get to know each other.'

Sighing, Darken trudged down the hall.

The teachers' lounge was decorated in Early Grandma's Attic. Nothing matched, and everything was at least fifty years old. A refrigerator had been placed in the back corner, next to a counter with a sink full of used coffee cups. The microwave, located on an old library cart, was stained both inside and out. Several tables had been shoved together, plastic folding chairs arranged haphazardly around them. A couch covered in nubby orange fabric occupied the oppo­site wall, and next to it a child-size desk held a telephone.

Darleen opened the fridge and took a half-empty can of soda from the shelf. She sat down at the table and started grading papers.

Skye looked around for the pop machine but did not see it. 'Where's the soda machine?'

Darleen shrugged listlessly. 'It must still be out for re­pair.'

Making a mental note to bring in a few cans of Diet Coke to put in the fridge, Skye joined her. While Skye waited for Darleen to look up, she studied her. If anything, the teacher looked worse now than she did the first day of school. Her skin was pasty, and she had dark circles under her eyes. She wore an overall romper over a Spandex crop top.

Skye thought, Why would a teacher who deals with dis­turbed adolescent boys dress like that? Talk about asking for trouble.

The silence lengthened and Skye's impatience grew. 'So, are you from Scumble River?'

Darleen nodded but did not look up.

This conversation was more of a chore than getting a sixteen-year-old to talk. 'You must have gone to high school here then, right?'

Again a nod but no eye contact.

'That murder Sunday was awful. Did you know Honey Adair?'

Finally Darken looked at Skye and started to nibble on a fingernail. The rest of her nails showed evidence that this was a long-standing habit. Her fingers also had yellow stains, suggesting she was a chronic smoker. 'No, not re­ally. Well, sort of. I mean we were in the same class, but I never hung around with her or anything. I don't think she had any girlfriends.'

Skye took the opening that statement provided. 'Yes, but I hear she had a lot of boyfriends.'

Darleen looked down at the papers in front of her and shrugged.

'In fact, I just heard today that before she started dating my brother, Honey and Mike Young were closer than two ones in an eleven.' Skye stared at Darleen, daring her to deny the truth.

'I don't remember.' Darleen's face had turned an un­healthy shade of red.

Feeling as if she was pulling the wings off a butterfly, Skye leaned closer and said, 'Oh, I'm surprised to hear that. I thought you and Mike were dating before Honey stole him away.'

Darleen stood up so suddenly that the chair she was sit­ting on went flying back and toppled onto the floor.